Facebook Is Killing The Standalone Instagram Direct Messaging App

This might be news from most of you, as you might not have seen Direct, the stand-alone Instagram messaging app that Facebook decided to stop developing. This is because they were still testing it. Its main purpose was supposed to be a competition for Snapchat for both iOS and Android.

This is a move that Facebook is making in order not to split apps anymore, but to bring them together.

So all the efforts that were supposed to be made for the Instagram direct messaging app will now be put into the main Instagram app DMs.

What is there to come?

Instagram representatives say that, for the ones that were using the stand-alone app from Instagram, no effort should be made. Because of all the conversations, they had through the app will now move to Instagram’s main direct messages.

So from now on, Instagram will continue to make improvements to the Direct Messages, but on the mail platform – whether we talk about mobile or desktop.

Some of the new features that might be available in the future are: encrypted messages (a very good improvement, if we are to think about all the breaches and the scandals about data we have witnessed in the last period), a web version of DM (which was already mentioned about at the beginning of the year) and the possibility to watch videos together with friends.

About Instagram Direct Messaging App

The direct messages feature appeared on Instagram back in 2013. And the Direct stand-alone app in 2017, but only in selected countries, such as Turkey, Portugal, Italy, Israel, Chile or Uruguay -, this is why, if you are not from those countries, you might not have heard about it. But with no publicity about it, the app didn’t have much traction in the countries in which it was available, so its future was doomed, as we can see.

Still, we can’t wait to check the new features they say they will offer and finally have a DM feature for the web app.